Episode Info
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Episode number: 2x61 Production Number: 34322 Airdate: Wednesday March 01st, 1972 |
Co-Guest Stars
Recap
In the jungles of Borneo, young Englishman Stephen Macy is working under contract to John Warwick, a tobacco plantation owner. The 66-year-old Warwick is married to a young attractive woman, Rhona. Macy visits them at their home and insists he'll never get used to the constant rain. John leaves to check on the fields and Macy sits down near Rhona. He turns off the gramophone and asks Rhona how she can stand the constant music. Macy comments that she's easy to please, and notes that she's married to a much older man. Rhona takes offense and tells Macy never to bring up the age discrepancy again. He hastily apologizes and she accepts, and then advises him to stop counting the moments. Macy insists that young people like the two of them don't belong there, and says that he wouldn't force his wife to stay there. Rona insists that she's there by choice and by love, and goes to prepare dinner...Read the full recap
Episode Notes
Based on the short story "Boomerang" by Oscar Cook. This story was first published in the Christine Campbell Thomson anthology Switch on the Light (1931)
Episode Quotes
Host: Good evening. I'm your little old curator in this museum which we call the Night Gallery. There are horror stories and horror stories. Elements of terror that take myriad forms. But this item has a built-in terror which can refrigerate even the most dispassionate amongst us. It has to do with a little beastie known as an earwig. A small bug that crawls into the human ear, and while inside, it doesn't whisper sweet nothings. It performs quite another function. Offered to you now on Night Gallery, a brand new nightmare which we call The Caterpillar.
Rhona Warwick: You are a moody one, Mr. Macy. You go from outrage to silence as if it were a quick tram ride.
Warwick: I see you've met our village entrepreneur.
Stephen Macy: Robinson?
Warwick: Yes, the only known rodent in captivity with a Christian name.
Stephen Macy: Robinson?
Warwick: Yes, the only known rodent in captivity with a Christian name.
Stephen Macy: Bloody fool. I'm not soliciting an assassination.
Tommy: Assassination? Oh, come now, young gentleman. Assassination? I shudder at the very word. The thought of a killing palpitates me, is what it does. Sends shivers up and down my body.
Tommy: Assassination? Oh, come now, young gentleman. Assassination? I shudder at the very word. The thought of a killing palpitates me, is what it does. Sends shivers up and down my body.
Tommy: An earwig. A kind of caterpillar. A thing almost as fine as a spider's web. It lives on wax, feeds on the innards of flowers, and it has a decided liking for the human ear. The natives hereabout, they have a distinct terror of it, they do. You see, it moves and it rests so lightly on a human being, that one is practically unconscious of it. Now, if you were to place one of these earwigs in a man's hair, just above his ear, well... once in the ear, it's a thousand-to-one chance of it ever coming out the same way again. You see, Mr. Macy, it can't turn round. Backing out is impossible. So it continues to feed as it goes, and it crawls right inside of the head.
Stephen Macy: When?
Tommy: This very night, if that's your pleasure.
Stephen Macy: None of this is my pleasure. Call it my... call it my ultimate desperation.
Tommy: Then that's what we will call it. It's just a matter of words. And as to what you're paying for, well, we won't call that assassination. No, what we'll call it is... brought-in favors. Yes, that's what we'll call it, brought-in favors.
Stephen Macy: Call it what you damn well please. When this is over, I never want to see you again, do you understand?
Tommy: Mr. Macy. You know, with your fine airs and your London drawing-room manners, and your mayfair proper touch, deep down inside you're a treacherous, murderous animal just like all the rest of us. The only difference is that you disdain a bit of blood on your hands. You like to keep a clean shop, you do. So as to our seeing each other again...
Tommy: This very night, if that's your pleasure.
Stephen Macy: None of this is my pleasure. Call it my... call it my ultimate desperation.
Tommy: Then that's what we will call it. It's just a matter of words. And as to what you're paying for, well, we won't call that assassination. No, what we'll call it is... brought-in favors. Yes, that's what we'll call it, brought-in favors.
Stephen Macy: Call it what you damn well please. When this is over, I never want to see you again, do you understand?
Tommy: Mr. Macy. You know, with your fine airs and your London drawing-room manners, and your mayfair proper touch, deep down inside you're a treacherous, murderous animal just like all the rest of us. The only difference is that you disdain a bit of blood on your hands. You like to keep a clean shop, you do. So as to our seeing each other again...
Tommy: Can you hear me? Can you understand? That native bloke which I sent over here that night, obviously got into the wrong room.
Stephen Macy: I... I want to die.
Tommy: Oh, yes. Well, you'll die all right, young gentleman. Have no fear of that. You will die. It's just that, I regret what happened. The mistake, I mean. I distinctly told that native bloke which room it was. But there's that language difficulty, you know. Mistakes will happen, you know. Nobody's fault, really. But I'm truly sorry for what happened, if that does any good. Truly sorry. Well, I've got to be off now. But I did want to pay my respects. You might comfort yourself, young gentleman, it won't last much longer. Really it won't. Not much longer at all. Bye-bye.
Stephen Macy: I... I want to die.
Tommy: Oh, yes. Well, you'll die all right, young gentleman. Have no fear of that. You will die. It's just that, I regret what happened. The mistake, I mean. I distinctly told that native bloke which room it was. But there's that language difficulty, you know. Mistakes will happen, you know. Nobody's fault, really. But I'm truly sorry for what happened, if that does any good. Truly sorry. Well, I've got to be off now. But I did want to pay my respects. You might comfort yourself, young gentleman, it won't last much longer. Really it won't. Not much longer at all. Bye-bye.
Stephen Macy: For your professional interest, doctor, since I am am the first person who has survived, I'll tell you what it's like. It's an agonizing, driving, itching pain. Anything would have been preferable. To be flayed alive, to be burned at the stake, to be put on the rack, to be hanged, even. Would have been an act of mercy.
Doctor: I took a look at the earwig that came out. I killed it, as a matter of fact-–I squeezed it. It was a female, that earwig... and the female lays eggs.
Other Episode Crew
| • Creator | Rod Serling |
| • Producer | Jack Laird |
| • Costume Designer | Bill Jobe |
| • Set Decorator | John M. Dwyer | Chester R. Bayhi |
| • Director of Photography | Gerald Perry Finnerman |
| • Art Director | Joseph Alves, Jr. |
| • Main Title Design | Wayne Fitzgerald |
| • Music Score | Eddie Sauter |
| • Film Editor | Bud Hoffman | Larry Lester |
| • Sound | David H. Moriarty (1) |
| • Assistant Director | Lester William Berke | Ralph Sariego |
| • Production Associate | Herbert Wright | Anthony Redman |
| • Unit Manager | Burt Astor |
| • Editorial Supervisor | Richard Belding |
| • Theme Music | Gil Melle |
| • Gallery Paintings | Thomas J. Wright | Phil Bandierle | Logan Elston |
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